Brown wash and brown pen on paper, laid on card

17.7 cm. by 26.1 cm.

Inscribed on reverse in pencil ‘Kiobenhaven’ and in ink ‘during the siege, in 1807’; in the same hand on the card below the image in pen ‘Kiobenhaven - during the siege in 1807’.

After the losses suffered by the French fleet at Trafalgar, Napoleon began to look elsewhere for ships that might be brought into action to bolster the French naval forces. The Danish fleet was perhaps the most powerful among the additions that he could hope to achieve. In response, the British decided to preempt Napoleon’s plans. They sailed a body of British warships into the harbour at Copenhagen where the Danish fleet was laid up and destroy it. The action also included the bombardment of the city. The Danes sought to bring up reinforcements from outside the city but the British landed a detachment of troops to prevent the Danish troops engaging. The 7th Regiment of Foot (from 1881 known as the Royal Fusiliers) were part of this British contingent of troops, with a young Henry Percy amongst its officers.

This painting comes from a group of works assembled by Percy’s grandson, Sir Henry Mortimer Durand (1850-1924) who served in the administration in India. The subject of the painting makes it likely that Durand inherited this painting from his grandfather.

Henry Percy acquired a Lieutenants commission in the 7th Regiment of Foot in 1804. He later saw action in the Peninsular wars but was captured during the retreat from Burgos in 1812 and was held captive for two years in France. Though he never married, during his imprisonment in France he fathered two illegitimate children to Mlle Marion Durand. After his release, Percy served as one of the Duke of Wellington’s ADCs at Waterloo and was the only one to remain unscathed during the action. Afterwards he was charged with duty of returning to London with the dispatches announcing the victory along with two captured French Imperial Eagles.

The painting is very much in the style of James Pattinson Cockburn who, as well as having studied under the renowned watercolourist Paul Sandby, was an officer in the Royal Artillery. He saw action at Copenhagen in 1807 and may have met Percy on this occasion. Cockburn’s sketches of the siege of Copenhagen were used as the basis of a series of prints published in November 1807. Cockburn appears to have particularly favoured the use of grey washes for his preliminary sketches.